For the second time this season, Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O'Connell began his weekly Monday press conference by revealing that quarterback J.J. McCarthy sustained a notable injury in the team's previous game that could potentially sideline him for at least one contest.
This time, O'Connell shared that McCarthy has been placed in concussion protocol following the Vikings' loss to the Green Bay Packers on Sunday, and if he can't play in the team's upcoming Week 13 matchup against the Seattle Seahawks, undrafted rookie Max Brosmer will get the start at quarterback for Minnesota.
While some believe this injury could be a bit of a blessing in disguise for the Vikings and McCarthy, some, like former Minnesota offensive lineman Jeremiah Sirles, think it's going to have more of a negative impact on the quarterback and the team.
During a recent episode of "The OLine Committee: An NFL Offensive Line Show," Sirles shared his reaction to the news about McCarthy's latest injury and how it could impact his future with the Vikings.
"I almost feel like, I think this is worst-case scenario for [the Vikings] of not being able to say, 'It's J.J.'s show the rest of the way, and we can actually get a pulse on what we have the rest of the way.'
...I was in the camp of let him play out the year and then make a decision. Now [the injury] just adds even more question marks into that decision.”
Jeremiah Sirles believes J.J. McCarthy's latest injury creates a "worst-case scenario" for the Minnesota Vikings
Despite how poorly McCarthy performed on Sunday against the Packers, most still agreed that the Vikings should just ride out the rest of the season with him as the team's starting quarterback in order to get a better idea about what his future with the franchise could look like.
But with this latest injury, like Sirles says, McCarthy is likely going to miss at least one of Minnesota's final six games now, if not more, and that puts a wrench in the team's plan to evaluate him.
If the Vikings don't feel like they were able to see enough from McCarthy this season to make a decision, figuring out whether or not to stick with the young quarterback as their starter could take even longer than expected.
In this day and age of the NFL, time is not something that teams are usually given when it comes to evaluating players, especially quarterbacks. It's had a negative impact on how signal-callers are currently developed in the league, but teams more often than not believe they can figure out if a quarterback has "it" or not.
Six games into McCarthy's NFL career, most would agree that he has not proven that he is capable of even being an average quarterback at the pro level yet.
However, what if things started to change for the better for him in Minnesota's final six contests of the season? That's now something that could potentially forever remain a mystery if Brosmer starts and plays well in Week 13, resulting in the Vikings wanting to see more from him as their starter